Despair Gambit YKTTW Discussion

What's a villain to do when the hero is invincible, or at least too strong to attack head on? Whether because of tactics, defense, the power of love, will, or because he won the Superpower Lottery, the conventional tactics just aren't going to do the trick. In such a case, a good alternative strategy is often to attack the hero's resolve, and make him give up the fight.

As with other such plots, it tends to backfire. Hurting the hero on this level makes it personal, incurring the risk of focusing the hero's attention squarely against the villain, or even triggering an Unstoppable Rage. There's also the possibility of riling a previously neutral party. Because the story tends to be on the hero's side, this gambit is more likely to fail in the long run, though it may succeed in evaporating his hope at a critical point.

This is a common tactic of the invading army, the intent being to weaken the defense by subduing its morale. This is also the basic idea behind terrorism.

Examples:

This is the Anti-Spiral modus operandi in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, arranging Manchurian Agents, Colony Drops and Hope Spots because the Power of the Spiral can't be defeated through main force. Although this is effective on some characters, it ultimately backfires, leading Team Gurren to the Anti-Spirals' home dimension and giving them a plethora of Lagann-type mechs with which to take them down.

This is Knives' instruction to his minions in Trigun, in the hopes that it will make Vash give up his stewardship of humans and join the other side. In the anime, it works, and Vash breaks down, becoming almost catatonic, at least until a moment of redemption redoubles his resolve.

In GUN×SWORD, Woo not only defeats Van in battle but also forces Van to recognize his own terror and confront the possibility of dying. It nearly works: Van is so shaken by his new fear of death that he is prepared to give up his revenge quest and run away. Fortunately, his sidekick calls him on his cowardice and challenges him to man up. The Power of Love does the rest.

In The Patriot the British general burns a church with it's town inhabitants still inside, including the newly married wife of one of the main characters. When the patriot army descends upon the village it prompts one of the soldiers who just lost his family to shoot himself in the head.

In Harry Potter, the Death Eaters use this at least as a supplemental strategy, striking randomly at civilian targets to foster fear among the populace. (In theory, they're targeting those who they deem impure, but by their standards that's pretty much everyone)

Once Sauron loses his body, this becomes one of his main tactics. In addition to the more overt Mind Rape of the Nazgul and the intimidation tactics used at Pelennor, he twists the Palantiri so that his enemies gradually lose all hope of vanquishing him. This prompts Saruman to commit a Face-Heel Turn and start collaborating with him, and Denethor to send his own son off to die and commit suicide in the midst of the decisive battle. In the film, Denethor's condition is even worse, such that he refuses even to send for help and even orders his soldiers to abandon their posts.

It eventually becomes clear that this is one of the Dark One's main goals in The Wheel of Time: hurt the Dragon personally until he turns or takes himself out. In The Gathering Storm, he succeeds, and Rand almost tries to unmake the world before he snaps out of it.

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